SAN DIEGO – Edelstein teamed up with Jurgen Schulze, project scientist at the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) and Klaus Gramann, project scientist at the Swartz Center for Computational Neuroscience, to conduct studies on wayfinding – or navigating – using the StarCave, a 360-degree, 15-foot panel, 3-D immersive environment virtual-reality system that studies the human brain's response to architectural cues.

Edelstein says this work has provided her with a new methodology to explore what type of influence architecture may have on the healthcare setting.

"In particular neuroscience can support the endeavor by how brain function can be served by the design of the environment," says Edelstein.

The StarCave is located at Calit2 at UCSD and was developed by Eduardo Macagno, founding dean of the UCSD Division of Biology and a Calit2 governing board member.

"Unlike magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) — which records brain responses in prone, immobile subjects — this technology relates navigation events to concurrent brain responses while subjects move freely within the virtual reality CAVE," says Edelstein.

Researchers have used the StarCave to develop an interactive and synchronized virtual reality and electroencephalography (EEG) prototype to measure how users respond to architectural cues.

"With this study we want to find out how a virtual model of some architectural model compares to a real building," says Schulze. "We hope that the results are comparable, but if they are not, the differences may reveal significant information about effective cues."

Edelstein has not yet done studies on healthcare using the StarCave, but she says now the technology is set up to make this possible.

"Although we didn't study it in this experiment, we did discuss the emotional effects of a building on a person with respect to how the person feels – whether they feel comfortable or safe, whether or not they feel like they know where they are," Schulze says. "We can imagine that the equipment is capable of giving us the answers to these questions."

Edlestein says she's in "collaboration with several hospitals internationally to see how neuroscience and evidence influence healthcare design."

Recent studies have shown that building design, color and lighting all can affect patient health. For example, getting lost in a building can be not only stressful and time consuming but according to a 2004 study published in U.K. medical journal The Lancet.

It can also be costly. The study found that staff at one large hospital spent 4,500 hours each year giving directions to lost patients, at an associated annual cost of $220,000. When a patient is critically ill ease of navigation in a complex setting can not only bode badly for the patient, but if that patient is infected, Edelstein points out, they could infect others by getting lost and wandering into a clean environment.

 The hospital form is great for an initial focus, she says because it embodies everything we need from architecture.